Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 67.djvu/352

352 of breeding on such a large scale as that mentioned above was at the time unknown, and it was believed that the results could be obtained only by repeated selections. If by experiments on a large scale the varieties could be produced at once, the former view would evidently lose much of its value.

The magnitude of Burbank's work excels anything that was ever done before, even by large firms in the course of generations. The number of fruits and flowers which he has improved is unequaled. Others confine themselves to one or two genera; he takes hold of everything. The majority of breeders who became famous by their improvements of certain groups took up this work merely as an adjunct, as a means of widening their commercial relations, thus creating a greater demand for their nursery products. Burbank commenced in the same way, but as soon as he had obtained what he thought he required, the nursery business was abandoned, and he devoted himself exclusively to the improvement of flowers and fruit. It is to this resolution he owes his present fame.

Another point of importance which is also evident from Burbank's work is that in many genera the development of hybrids seems to have reached its limit. In some cases neither Burbank nor any other breeder could produce something new. Apples, pears, peaches, strawberries and a few other types are quite exhausted. The circumference of their form-circle, if I may be allowed to express myself this way, or, as Americans say, their possibilities, are already taken up in cultivation. Inside that circle, of course, improvements are possible, and every one who eats canned apples, or pears, or peaches from California knows that progress in regard to these fruits is evident enough. But Burbank himself considers those species exhausted, and he asks for his improvements no higher rank than what already exists. He has added to them only greater productivity and the qualities required for packing and shipping. It is, however, by just these qualities that a great deal of California's prosperity has been created and the fruit export to Europe increased, qualities which the consumer applauds as much as the European orchardists fear them.

From a scientific point of view Burbank's varieties are but individual, by which I mean that the variety has been produced by one single individual, hence from one seed. That specimen has then been multiplied by vegetative propagation into the thousands, or probably millions, of plants which are in the market. As an individual the variety preserves the characters obtained through hybridizing.

Exceptions to this rule are rare. Burbank has, however, obtained a few hybrids which are stable when raised from seeds. These are naturally crossings of stable species or at least stable hybrids. As an example I may mention the hybrid between the California dewberry